How Does Your Garden Grow, 2013 Edition

This year's garden is so awesome.  I'm so proud of all we've learned in the past two seasons.  But I'm super embarrassed for the mistakes I've made this year because now that I have my garden bible I'm smacking myself in the forehead for not doing such things as: buying the garden bible BEFORE we started gardening this year, .... and that's pretty much it. 

But seriously, I also should have harvested my radishes all at once because they get bitter if you leave them in the ground too long.  OOPS.  And I should have started the basil inside because it's having a really hard time outside... the monsoon season drowned a bunch of tries.  OOPS.  Then I should have harvested the lettuce more aggressively as it matured so it would give me a second and third harvest (maybe?) instead of being on the verge to bolt, as it is now.  OOPS.

Since this photo was taken I have added twine to make the trellis more trellis-y.  I'm pretty excited to try the pole beans because we've never done that.  I've also taken out the radishes and cilantro cause they were done... and added a second try of basil and chives.  Which don't seem to be going that well.

All in all, we're still doing pretty awesome out there.  And it's good to learn things for "next year" (which won't be next year cause we'll be in limbo-land and homeless at the time we need to plant) and try things a little different with how I'm caring for the plants this year. 

Oh oh and I've also tried something pretty revolutionary this year... you may have heard of it... it's called weeding.  I know.  Apparently if you take out the life-sucking weeds that compete for nutrients with your garden plants then you'll have better crops.  Amazing right?  This is the first year I have somehow found the time to properly care for this aspect of the garden (I blame Double Trouble) and I've already done a full weeding TWICE!  I'm a wild woman!

The radishes were really fun!  No one besides me really likes them, but I just wanted to experiment.  They were so easy to grow!  And the fresh bright color and crunch made every salad so delicious and PRETTY.  Cause we all know how much pretty means to this food-photographer.

And even if everything else in our garden shrivels up and dies right this second I won't care... because the TOMATOES ARE COMING!  Jesse's garden house is still holding strong and they are just doing so marvelous.  I'm pretty proud of us for how much improvement we've seen in the tomato department since year one.  I think we only got a bowl of tomatoes that year.

I saw Mr. Upstairs Neighbor harvesting some tomatoes from his garden today... so if my la-la-land-ever-the-optimist calculations are correct, we'll be tasting ours within three weeks.  Can you say bruschetta?????  Nom nom.

And with that I give you this completely un-related picture of the girls.  Because some of you appreciate a daily-ish dose of Aiduk Girl cuteness.  And the rest of you can just scroll back up and look at the beautiful radishes again.

Have a happy Monday y'all!